Simultaneous UV and NIR protective properties of ZnO–SnO₂ nanocomposites

ZnO/SnO 2 composite nanopyarmids were prepared by hydrothermal method to investigate their ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (NIR) blocking properties for textile applications. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data shows that ZnO crystallizes in hexagonal wurtzite structure and SnO 2 in tetragonal cassiterite structure. UV-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy reveals that among various concentrations, Zn4/Sn1 nanocomposites (NCs) possess better absorbance and lower transmittance in UV and NIR region compared to pure ZnO and SnO 2 with an optical bandgap of 3.20 eV. With the increase of Zn concentration in ZnO/SnO 2 NCs, the bandgap increases. Morphology of Zn4/Sn1 NCs shows nanopyramid structure under the magnification of 200 nm. The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum exhibits the emission peaks at 389 nm which shows that the absorbance in the UV region is converted to visible emission. Finally, these results concluded that the prepared NCs will draw much more attention for shielding UV and NIR radiation in NCs engineered fabrics.